King George VIís worries over the governmentís precarious hold on power pushed Attlee into calling an election just 20 months after the country had last gone to the polls.

The monarch was keen to have the tricky issue of the governmentís instability dealt with before he left for a planned tour of Australia and New Zealand early in 1952.

As parliament was dissolved on 5 October and the election date was set for the 25th the Tories were enjoying a strong poll lead. Gallup had them on 50.5%, with Labour trailing on 44%.

With Labour having fulfilled most of its ambitions since the election in 1945, the party campaigned on its record. Many Labour candidates including cabinet ministers rammed home the idea that the Conservatives could not be trusted to keep the peace.

It was a theme followed up by the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror, which posed the question "Whose finger on the trigger?" on its front page. The implication that Churchill was a warmonger resulted in a libel action post-election.

For this campaign the Tories were in good heart, expecting victory. And before the age of mass-TV ownership they were able to call upon the support of much of the press. They also had more money and campaign staff to hand than their rivals.